In this extract from Wiliam Rowe’s classic textbook (Wadsworth 2001) he explains the relationship between foreknowledge, predestination and human freedom.

Here are some questions a US Professor set his students on this chapter.

1. Explain the two conceptions of freedom that Rowe discusses in chapter 11 (“Predestination, Divine Foreknowledge, and Human Freedom”). Explain why Rowe thinks that, on one of these conceptions of freedom, human freedom is compatible with divine predestination, and why, on the other conception of freedom, human freedom is incompatible with divine predestination. Finally, explain Locke’s example of the “man in the room”, and explain how this example is used to argue in favor of one of the conceptions of freedom.

2. Explain the argument that Rowe gives for the conclusion that divine foreknowledge is incompatible with human freedom. Then explain the “power over the past” reply to this argument that was favored by Ockham.

3. Explain the argument that Rowe gives for the conclusion that divine foreknowledge is incompatible with human freedom. Then explain the “God is outside of time” reply to this argument that was favored by Boethius and Aquinas.